ECU, Wake, JCSU, Wingate Coaches Among DG’s “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs” (Week 12) – Ncsportsnetwork.com

COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 12:

ECU, Wake Forest, JC Smith, Wingate Coaches
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
(Weekly Video = Posted At Bottom Soon)

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(final up to date Nov. 18, 2025)

While the main target of our “This Week In College Football” present is forward-looking as typically as doable, we at all times take a look again on the earlier weekend in school soccer, too, and typically we’ll provide some fast mentions to these making impactful headlines on the gridiron, particularly within the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or throughout North Carolina.

With that in thoughts, under are our Week 12 “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” dropped at you by our good pals at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach.

Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and dwell music three hundred and sixty five days a 12 months(!). (It’s an excellent place to observe a sport, too.) Right subsequent door, King Neptune has change into top-of-the-line eating places in your entire higher Wilmington space.

Week 12 “Fun Fact #1″

Fun Fact: Although the state of North Carolina is much extra well-known for nationwide championships in school basketball and lots of different sports activities, it does sometimes produce nationwide champions and different high-ranking contenders in school soccer.

While it’s nonetheless ready for its first FBS-level nationwide title on the gridiron, the Bold North State can declare three FCS nationwide championships, because of the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Under legendary coach Jerry Moore, App State gained back-to-back-to-back nationwide crowns in 2005, 2006 and 2007. These days, in fact, the Mountaineers are competing within the FBS ranks.

At the FBS stage, the one in-state faculties ever to come back near a nationwide championship are Duke and North Carolina, and every of these examples got here earlier than the creation of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. The Blue Devils and Tar Heels each performed within the Southern Conference on the time.

In 1938, #3 Duke was 9-0 below legendary coach Wallace Wade earlier than shedding 7-3 (on a late landing cross) to #7 Southern Cal within the Rose Bowl. In 1941, #2 Duke was 9-0 below Wade earlier than shedding 20-16 to #12 Oregon State within the well-known Rose Bowl that needed to be performed in Durham due to World War Two. In 1948, #3 UNC was 9-0-1 below coach Carl Snavely earlier than shedding 14-6 to #5 Oklahoma within the Sugar Bowl.

In Division Two, the closest anybody in our state has come to a nationwide championship has been competing within the nationwide title sport. In 2012, Winston-Salem State went 14-0 below coach Connell Maynor earlier than falling to Valdosta State within the title contest. In 2013, Lenoir-Rhyne went 13-1 below coach Mike Houston earlier than falling to Northwest Missouri State within the ultimate.

Lastly, our state does have a wealthy custom in relation to HBCU nationwide championships on the gridiron. North Carolina A&T, NC Central, Winston-Salem State, Fayetteville State and Shaw University all declare a number of nationwide title in that regard.

The most up-to-date instance was in 2022, when coach Trei Oliver led the NC Central Eagles to a victory over Jackson State within the Celebration Bowl, which has been thought-about the HBCU nationwide championship sport since its inception in 2015.

Moving on to this week’s Shout-Outs …

#1—Shout-out to first-year East Carolina head coach Blake Harrell and the Pirates.

Harrell is now a stellar 12-4 since taking the reins in Greenville halfway by means of final season, and one in every of his finest victories as a head coach got here final Saturday, within the Pirates’ 31-27 win over Memphis at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The Tigers had been 8-2 heading into that sport, they’d a really harmful quarterback in Brendon Lewis, and so they led 17-10 at halftime.

Then the Pirates outscored Memphis 21-10 within the second half to assert the victory and stay in rivalry for an invite to the American Conference championship sport, one thing they haven’t but achieved of their 12 years as a member of that league.

Quarterback Katin Houser, operating again London Montgomery, vast receiver Brock Spalding, vast receiver Payton Mangrum, defensive deal with Zion Wilson, linebacker Samuel Dankah, security Ja’Marley Riddle, all-purpose man Mike Wright Jr. and kicker Nick Mazzie had been among the many Pirates’ standouts of their huge win over the Tigers.

#2—Shout-out to first-year Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert, Wake defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton and the Demon Deacons.

In the Deacons’ 28-12 victory over UNC final Saturday, they restricted the Tar Heels to a measly 257 whole yards.

Wake is second within the ACC in scoring protection this season, behind solely nationally ranked Miami, at 19 factors per sport. In the Deacons’ seven victories this 12 months, they’ve restricted their opponents to a mean of solely 12 factors per sport.

With a 7-3 document and regular-season video games in opposition to solely Delaware (an FCS opponent) and 5-5 Duke remaining, Dickert — throughout his first 12 months in Winston-Salem — has put himself in place to make a run what what could be solely the third season of 10 wins or extra in Wake soccer historical past.

Jim Grobe did it as soon as. Dave Clawson did it as soon as. If Dickert can lead his staff to victories over Delaware, Duke and a bowl opponent, he would be a part of these two legendary coaches within the historical past books.

Huge shout-outs to Hazelton, defensive deal with Mateen Ibirogba, defensive finish Langston Hardy, linebacker Dylan Hazen, security Nick Andersen, nickel again Davaughn Patterson and the remainder of that improbable Wake protection for a completely sensible season.

#3—Shout-out to fourth-year Johnson C Smith head coach Maurice Flowers and the Golden Bulls.

A JCSU alum, Flowers has taken a long-downtrodden program — which had just one CIAA soccer championship in its first 99 years as a member of that league — to its biggest heights this season.

The Golden Bulls beat two-time defending champion Virginia Union 45-21 final Saturday within the CIAA championship sport at Durham County Stadium. During the common season, Virginia Union had gone 8-0 in league play, had gained its convention video games by a mean rating of 43-14, and had defeated JCSU 28-10 head-to-head in Richmond.

Now Flowers has the Bulls at 10-1 on the season (that’s essentially the most victories in any single marketing campaign in program historical past), they’re ranked #11 nationally (that’s the very best ballot rating in program historical past) and so they’re headed to the Division Two playoffs (one other all-time program first). That’s about pretty much as good because it will get, particularly at a college that hadn’t gained its personal convention since 1969.

Flowers, who was a star quarterback at East Mecklenburg High School — proper there in Charlotte — within the mid-Eighties, went on to play QB for Johnson C Smith — additionally proper there in Charlotte — within the late Eighties and early Nineties. He then spent about 25 years working his approach up the highschool and school teaching ranks, together with assistant teaching stops at JCSU, Shaw, Campbell and Fayetteville State, earlier than getting the Fort Valley State head teaching job previous to the 2020 season.

After an abbreviated COVID marketing campaign, then a full 12 months at Fort Valley State in 2021, Flowers took the highest job at JC Smith. His data with the Golden Bulls have gone from 2-7 to 7-4 to 8-2 and now 10-1 this season, with the potential of including some playoff icing to that tasty cake.

The #11 Bulls are thought-about the favourite as they host #24 Frostburg State (Sat., 1 p.m., ESPN+) on the 4,500-seat Irwin Belk Complex on the JCSU campus in Charlotte, within the opening spherical of the D2 playoffs.

Frostburg State, champion of the Mountain East Conference, is 9-2 and has given up solely 19 factors per sport this season. The Golden Bulls rank ninth nationally in scoring protection, at solely 17 factors per sport.

Among the important thing gamers to observe for JCSU are the next first-team All-CIAA honorees: quarterback Kelvin Durham, operating again Bobby Smith, vast receivers Brian Lane and Deandre Proctor, return specialist Isaiah Perry, CIAA Lineman of the Year Jamari Mason, defensive deal with Cadricus Stanley, linebacker Vincent Hill and defensive again Daryl Taybron.

Regardless of what occurs the remainder of the way in which, Flowers is a CIAA champion, a D2 playoffs participant and the North Carolina Sports Network’s 2025 “Bold North State Coach of the Year.”

#4—Shout-out to second-year Wingate head coach Rashaan Jordan and the Bulldogs.

The solely different Bold North state staff that’s competing in a playoff bracket at any stage of NCAA soccer this season, the Bulldogs earned their approach into the 32-team Division Two competitors for the second 12 months in a row.

They gained the South Atlantic Conference championship a 12 months in the past, to seize that league’s computerized playoff bid, and so they earned an at-large invitation this time, because of their 9-2 document, which included high quality wins over Catawba, Emory & Henry and UNC Pembroke.

Like Johnson C Smith, Wingate will get to host its first-round sport on Saturday, because the unranked Bulldogs welcome #23 Benedict to Irwin Belk Stadium (1 p.m., ESPN+).

Benedict is 9-2 and ranks ninth within the nation in scoring protection, at 17 factors per sport. Wingate ranks fifteenth nationally in scoring offense, at round 38 factors per sport.

Among the standouts for the Bulldogs this season are dual-threat quarterback Elijah Holmes, operating again Xavier Pugh, vast receiver Jaylen Himes, return specialist Jake Snapp, defensive deal with Mandjou Berte, defensive ends Eli Lipscomb and Guy Taylor, linebackers Jaquan Edwards and Ryan Green, and cornerback Brandon Perry.